1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to exercise machines, specifically to exercise machines which involve combined upper and lower body exercise with functional electrical stimulation of paralyzed lower body muscles.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
People with paralysis such as paraplegics and quadriplegics have large portions of their body which they are unable to move on their own. There are a multitude of health related problems associated with paralysis, some examples are; muscle atrophy, pressure sores, osteoporosis, loss of joint range of motion, cardiovascular disease, lack of cardiovascular endurance, lower body blood clot formation, edema, and spasticity.
Functional electrical stimulation is used to contract and thus exercise paralyzed muscles. Functional electrical stimulation involves applying small electrical currents to the nerves of a paralyzed muscle to cause it to contract. The electrical stimulation is typically applied through surface electrodes placed on the skin over the muscle to be contracted.
Typically, an individual with paralysis who is involved with functional electrical stimulation exercise will use an individual muscle group stimulator. While using this type of stimulator a person will typically exercise one muscle group at a time for 15 minutes. For example, one applies the stimulator electrodes over the top of the upper thigh, which is the quadriceps muscle, and performs knee extensions with a weight on the ankle. One goes through this process on each of the paralyzed muscles. This is a time consuming process since a typical complete paraplegic has five or more paralyzed muscle groups. Because it is very time consuming to go through all the paralyzed muscle groups with an individual muscle group stimulator, regular compliance is very low for this type of program. In addition, this type of program does very little to develop the cardiovascular system since only one muscle group at a time is active.
What is needed is an exercise device that exercises most of the paralyzed muscles at the same time while also exercising non-paralyzed muscles. A machine such as this saves time and provides better cardiovascular development when compared to an individual muscle group stimulator. Electrical stimulation stationary bicycles have been developed, however, they only stimulate the front and back upper thigh and the buttocks. They require complex electronics so that each muscle is only active during a certain range of the pedal crank arm rotation. Exercising three muscle groups at a time is still not enough to fully develop the cardiovascular system. The person exercising on the stationary bicycle will usually have to spend additional time electrically stimulating other muscles individually.
The common row machine might seem to be a good full body exercise device to utilize in combination with functional electrical stimulation. However, the resistance is applied through the movable hand grips on row machines. An able bodied individual regulates the force applied with the legs versus the force applied with the arms in order to produce the rowing motion. It would be very difficult or perhaps impossible for a computer to regulate the electrical stimulation applied to paralyzed legs so that the force produced by the legs versus the arms would result in the correct rowing motion. In addition, rowing machines only provide resistance in one direction. This means only about half of the body muscles are getting exercised significantly.